The present invention generally relates to the field of methods of navigation in a network and computer related environment, and particularly to a system and method of providing a navigational aide.
With the ever increasing size of modem display devices, users interacting with data on an information handling system, such as applications including web browsers, word processors, spreadsheets, and the like, must navigate over larger and larger display areas. Although the ability to see and interact with more data at a given time may be a great benefit to a user, the time spent navigating between data, both displayed on the display device and available in other applications, may result in a great loss of time. For example, after scrolling to the bottom of a Web page, a user""s cursor typically is not conveniently positioned to perform navigation functions, such as xe2x80x9cBackxe2x80x9d. Therefore, the user has to track the cursor across the screen to the navigation controls, then click on xe2x80x9cBackxe2x80x9d with the use of a cursor control device.
One method used to address this problem is to allow the user to specify a different location for the navigation bar. However, the user-specified location may not be convenient in situations in which the cursor is positioned at the top of the display window. This problem is magnified when a user needs to visually scan many sets of data, requiring extra cursor repositioning beyond the effort needed to perform the target task of interacting with the displayed data. Other methods used to address this problem, such as special keyboard keys and extra mouse buttons have been proposed, but these methods require the use of non-standard hardware, making them difficult if not impossible to utilize on current information handling systems. These methods also require the user to go outside of the current and intuitive input method of pointing a mouse and a mouse button.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide a system of method of providing a navigational aide capable of being utilized with current information handling systems in an intuitive manner.
Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a system and method of providing a navigational aide. In a first aspect of the present invention, a system and method of providing a navigational aide includes monitoring data displayed on a display device and detecting a marker of a section of the displayed data. A navigational aide is displayed in response to the detected marker of the section of displayed data.
It is to be understood that both the forgoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only and are not restrictive of the invention as claimed. The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of the specification, illustrate an embodiment of the invention and together with the general description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.